Canadian police ordered to release more information about the infamous Titanic PCP chowder incident
We finally might get more information about that time James Cameron, Bill Paxton, and 50 other Titanic crew members got dosed on PCP
Aux News Titanic
As far as legendary pop culture stories go, few are weirder than the Titanic “PCP chowder” incident—a real, actual event that happened during filming on the future blockbuster in August of 1996, in which at least 50 cast and crew members, including star Bill Paxton and director James Cameron, were dosed with angel dust someone slipped into the soup they were all sharing. A story told, on more than one occasion, by the late Paxton in his days making the talk show rounds, it has all the stuff of urban legend—including Cameron supposedly making himself throw up to get the drug out of his system, and Paxton riding out the high by going back to his trailer and drinking a case of beer—except with a ton of evidence and police reports to back it up.
And now, even more information about the incident is due to come to light, it seems, as Nova Scotia’s information and privacy commissioner has ordered Halifax police to un-redact at least some of their reports on the investigation, which was closed without naming a culprit in 1999. The commissioner apparently found that censors had been too over-zealous in their efforts to hide information in the publicly available record, including third-party accounts of the events that occurred that wild Canadian night. You can read the order yourself—although it’s fairly dense with legal-ese, we’ll warn—but the upshot is that some intrepid knowledge seeker filed an information request, was unhappy with how much black ink was on the info they got back, and has now successfully petitioned for more info.
According to CTV News, the info could be publicly available as soon as May, potentially kicking off what we imagine could be one of the funniest, weirdest true-crime investigations of all time. (It’s always nice to have a mass poisoning incident that everyone is alive to laugh about afterward, ya know?) Anyway, please enjoy maybe the coolest thing James Cameron has ever said, in an interview where he described the incident from 2009: “People are moaning and crying, wailing, collapsed on tables and gurneys. The D.P., Caleb Deschanel, is leading a number of crew down the hall in a highly vocal conga line. You can’t make this stuff up.”
39 Comments
That reminds me of the time I was working as a crew member on another Bill Paxton movie, Twister. Everyone ended up tripping balls because the lobster chowder was spiked with angel dus- HEY WAIT A MINUTE!
*shakes fist* Paxtooooon!
Weird to think in Apollo 13 he was the one who got sick.
That wasn’t angel dust, it was rat poison. Helen Hunt was just trying to kill Paxton
I’m a little bored of true crime podcasts that focus on murder, they should cover topics like this instead.
That’s definitely a genre I could get into.
Have you watched American Vandal?
The true tragedy of American Vandal is that it didn’t kill the fucking True Crime documentary like Walk Hard killed the music biopic. Second of all, holy shit, you’re back, BKK?
“Walk Hard killed the music biopic”How?
Yeah, I heard they sold the site so I figured things could only get better. Seems less likely these comments will just be shut down one day when someone has a hissyfit. Of course I also posted my unchangeable password, and I saw at least one person made use of it a couple times. So it may not always be me!
I was actually gonna avail myself of it – since you were the guy who said if you could take one person outta the greys it’d be me – but it felt kinda disrespectful. (Well, at least so soon.)I’m pretty sure though that one of the edicts handed down during the last big Spanfeller Change was to freeze the commenters at whoever’s out of the greys stays, and whoever’s still in the greys gets stuck there. Incidentally, I was taken out of the greys in Kotaku last year, briefly, but well, how well did that work out, eh?
Yeah. I’m hoping the new owners will de-kinjafy at some point and we’ll all have to start over with a better system. Though it also occurs to me that that “slightly misspelled usernames” troll could have a field day if he got there before most users.
No, the true tragedy is that they f***ing canceled it. That show was hilarious, poignant, and brilliant.
no
good opportunity to plug sister publication The Onion’s A Very Fatal Murder. Great parody.
Or comedies…
Thank goodness all of these investigators are so busy and concerned for the cast and crew. Can’t imagine them looking into the thousands of rapes that are committed every year, especially the ones involving drug spiking.
This is just the unsealing of a case file, no one is actively working this case.
This is more than just a case to one dedicated Mountie.
Speaking of which, how come you aren’t out solving all the rapes instead of doing whatever the fuck it is that YOU do?Seriously, fuck you.
The fallacy of relative privation strikes again!
Ok, but how do the police investigate the other 9 out of 10 unreported sexual assaults? Only 700 or so were reported to Nova Scotian police services; they WANT victims to come forward so they can do something.Or is your point trying to imply that police aren’t investigating their existing caseload properly? Because if so they aren’t dealing with thousands of cases, and the easiest solution is to hire more cops. Is that what you wanted?Or were you just here to engage in bad faith whataboutism? You’ll be happy to know that unredacting some documents about a case where the perpetrator was almost certainly a crew member isn’t taking away any resources from sexual assault investigations, especially ones involving drug spiking.
Considering how unhinged some of the late, great Bill Paxton’s performances are, I think the real story here is PCP was once dosed with Bill Paxton.
Canada has police?
Mounties!
No we defunded them like a sane country.
Do they still have those groovy hats? Oh please say they do!
That’s their dress uniform and not what they generally wear, but yes. The Mounties these days serve as basically Canada’s FBI.
Canadian female body inspectors! Soorey aboot that. Couldn’t resist.
Funny how the term ‘Mounties’ is mostly used by Americans at this point. You’re correct that it’s just a dress uniform, and yes, if someone is in trouble with the RCMP, they’re in trouble.
We defunded the police?
WHERE?
Because it sure hasn’t happened in Alberta.
Everyone knows Alberta is just a Texas exclave
I WISH. A Texas exclave would be preferable. We’re Alabama with snow and no Black Belt.
Did this post sound better in your head?
Dudley Do-Right is on the case. Savoir Faire is everywhere.
“James Cameron…. and 50 other Titanic crew members”. I’m sorry but when I first read that I absolutely thought for a second “oh damn James Cameron was aboard the Titanic!”
Well if it’s gonna be that kind of party I’m a stick my dick in the mashed patatas!
This story teaches us things.
For starters, it taught me that the father of Zooey and Emily Deschanel lead a “highly vocal conga line” while under the effect of PCP.
gotta be Leo right?